Jules Cheret was a French painter who became a master of Belle Epoque poster art. Over the course of his long life, Cheret produced more than 1000 posters. His extravagantly colourful designs were used to regularly promote upcoming theatre productions. He is regarded as the father of the modern poster.Read More →
A monogram is a single symbol made up of one or more letters. Every aspect of an individual’s taste and fancy can be accommodated with a monogram. Monograms differ significantly, and there are of a great variety of design. There are so many different types and combinations of the same letters that no two persons with the same initials need to have the same monogram. Read More →
The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a group of professional designers who aim to show how important design is to industry, society, and our future as a whole. It was started in 1914 by a small group of graphic designers, printers, publishers, and illustrators. Since then, it has developed into a national network of skilled designers, educators, students, and fans. AIGA aims to help individuals in business, the media, and the government understand how vital design and designers are. It also works to improve professional growth, promote the value of design, and set worldwide conventions and moral guidelines.Read More →
Paul Rand, was a seminal figure in graphic design who made innovative visual identities for some of America’s major corporations and book and magazine publishers
We all have seen the designs of Paul Rand at some stage of our lives. He had a career spanning nearly seven decades. There is the seminal logo for IBM and the logo for ABC. There is the Westinghouse logo, the logo for NeXT computers. There are posters and packaging, book covers, record covers and a multitude of magazine covers.Read More →
The DIY style was one of the novelties that British punk introduced in the 1970s. There were hundreds of these fanzines, the most well-known of which being Sniff in ‘Glue. i-D, published by the art director Terry Jones, evolved from a fanzine into a publishing success.Read More →
Glyphs are graphical symbols that are more or less universally used. The Ancient Greeks had a word for most of today’s needs, the glyph is a Greek word meaning carving. Glyphs should carve a road to international communication by breaking down language barriers.Read More →
Tschichold created new standards of text arrangement and style that inspired all of the British postwar graphic design, although only working for the publication for three years. Then, with the formulation of the “Penguin Composition Rules,” he was able to apply Modernist theory to the requirements of book manufacturing.Read More →
Peter Brehens (1868 – 1940) was a German graphic artist, architect and designer. He studied at the Karlsruhe and in Düsseldorf and Munich.Read More →
If you have ever read an old newspaper (early nineteenth century) and you look carefully at the old broadsheets. You will notice that words are capitalised here and there and that the rules of capitalisation, some of which you will learn shortly, seem nonexistent.Read More →
Jacqueline Groag (1903 – 1986) was a Czech textile designer and ceramicist. Born in Prague she studied in Vienna at the Kunstgewerbeschule during the 1920s. In 1937 she moved to Paris where she designed dress prints for Jeanne Lanvin, Elsa Schiparelli and others.Read More →
Adrian Frutiger was a Swiss graphic designer and typographer. Frutiger created some of the most widely used fonts of the 20th century, and they can be seen daily in airports on street signs and in subway stations. He was the creator of many internationally known and loved fonts such as Avenir, Frutiger, Univers and Vectora.Read More →
He was dubbed “the father” of New Wave or Swiss Punk typography . LEARN MORERead More →
Ikko Tanaka was a significant Japanese Graphic Designer, known for integrating modernism with Japanese culture. His prominent creations included logos, visual materials for brands and the graphic identity for Muji. He won multiple awards and contributed to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.Read More →
Little is known about the early life of France’s most distinguished type designer Claude Garamond, though he is mentioned as being “at work” in the printing business early in the sixteenth century, Garamond was commissioned by the French monarch, Francis I, to cut a font of Greek letter which later became known as the “Royal Greek Type.” Read More →
Agitprop art (or the art of agitation) was used to manipulate ideological beliefs, specifically to spread the ideals of Communism in Russia in the period immediately following the 1917 revolution. The term ‘agitprop’ (an abbreviation for agitation propaganda: ‘agitational propaganda’) was first used shortly after the Revolution, and the Communist Party established the Department of Agitation and Propaganda in 1920.Read More →
German-born, Tschichold is one of the most outstanding and influential typographers of the 20th century, He cleared away the old typography of pre-1925 and made room for a modern, structured and regulated new typography. His work is characterised by rigorous structure, asymmetrical placement of contrasting elements, and layouts based on horizontal and vertical underlying grids.Read More →
The Bauhaus was the most well-known design school of the 20th century. Herbert Bayer created notes in denominations of one million, two million, and two billion. The designs exemplify the ideology of hardline Modern Movement graphics.Read More →
The universal typeface, 1925, was a geometric alphabet based on bar and circle and was designed by Herbert Bayer. READ MORERead More →
In the 1960s, the JAAC’s philosophy came under fire for being overly reliant on exhibitions as a platform for innovative ideas. Furthermore, during the turbulent 1960s, a perceived emphasis on aesthetics at the expense of social significance, combined with allegations of elitism, led to the organisation’s disbandment in 1970.Read More →
Graphic design has distilled the spirit of each era through the tumultuous passing of time. Approximately 3,500 landmark designs lead us through contemporary history in this visual map. Jens Müller curates the year’s standout projects, as well as a running sequence of design achievements.Read More →